INDIAN GAMES. 99 



long slender stick, bent double and bound together, leav- 

 ing a circular hoop at the extremity, across which is woven 

 a coarse meshwork of strings. Such an implement is not 

 strong enough for batting the ball, neither do they bat it, 

 but simply shove or thrust it along the ground." 



Paul Kane'-'*' describes a game played among the Chi- 

 nooks. He says "They also take great delight in a game 

 with a ball which is played by them in the same manner 

 as the Cree, Chippewa and Sioux Indians. Two poles are 

 erected about a mile apart, and the company is divided 

 into two bands armed with sticks, having a small ring or 

 hoop at the end with which the ball is picked up and 

 thrown to a great distance, each party striving to get the 

 ball past their own goal. They are sometimes a hundred 

 on a side, and their play is kept up with great noise and 

 excitement. At this play they bet heavily as it is gener- 

 ally played between tribes or villages." 



Domenech^^ writing about the Indians of the interior, 

 calls the game "cricket," and says the players were cos- 

 tumed as follows : "Short drawers, or rather a belt, the 

 ])ody being tirst daubed over with a layer of bright colors ; 

 from the belt (which is short enough to leave the thighs 

 free) hangs a long tail, tied up at the extremity with long 

 horse hair ; round their necks is a necklace, to which is 

 attached a floating mane, dyed red, as is the tail, and fall- 

 ing in the way of a dress fringe over the chest and shoulders. 

 * * In the northwest, in the costume indispensable to the 

 players, feathers are sometimes substituted for horse hair." 

 He adds "that some tribes play with two sticks" and that 

 it is played in "winter on the ice." "The ball is made of 

 wood or brick covered with kid-skin leather, sometimes of 



'"Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of Nortii America by Paul Kane, 

 p. 190; H. n. Bancroft's Native Races, Vol. i, p. 2U. 



2> Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of Xortli America by tlic Abb<S 

 Km. Doniene<-.h, Vol. U, pp. i'Ji, l\)i. 



